Playing Shakespeare (2 Parts)

Synopsis: Two videos prepared under the technical direction of Claire Allam by students studying Shakespeare at the University of Sheffield with Michael Hattaway. They are designed to show how Shakespeare was and is performed in a multitude of ways. The ‘meanings’ of the plays are generated as much by the conditions of performances as by their texts.
Language: English
Country: Great Britain
Medium: Multimedia; Video
Technical information: Colour / Sound
Year of release: 2000
Year of production: 2000
Subjects: Drama
Keywords: drama production; Shakespeare, William (1564-1616)

Title: Hamlet for the people
Synopsis: Three extracts from the ‘bad quarto’ (a text reconstructed by players from memory) are performed on a replica of the kind of theatre that would have been used in the provinces, particularly when the London players had been driven out of the capital by the plague. Hamlet complained that clowns ‘spoke more than was set down for them’: We have inserted some of the jests reported to have been used by the great Elizabethan clown Richard Tarlton. The tape demonstrates how crucial the audience was to performance and how, despite the flaunting of the kinds of theatrical decorum to which we have become accustomed, the play holds its own.
Duration: 31 mins
Title: Tempest in the studio, The
Synopsis: Three sequences (part of the opening storm, the scene where Ariel taunts the drunken Stephano and Trinculo, and the encounter between Ferdinand and Miranda) are played in a television studio in two different ways. It is revealed that meaning depends on spatial relationships between characters, upon the amount of movement introduced, and on decisions about which characters have authority.
Duration: 34 mins

Name: JISC MediaHub
Notes: NB. As of 1 September 2016, the Jisc MediaHub subscription service is no longer available. However, all the multimedia content that Jisc has licensed for use by higher and further education institutions, which is currently accessed via the MediaHub subscription, is available through a new service, MediaPlus, at http://mediaplus.alexanderstreet.com.

Name: University of Sheffield Learning & Teaching Services
Web: http://onlineshop.shef.ac.uk/browse/category.asp?compid=1&modid=1&catid=114 External site opens in new window
Phone: 0114 22 20401
Address: New Spring House (Ground Floor)
231 Glossop Road
Sheffield
S10 2GW
United Kingdom
Notes: LeTS holds a back catalogue of high quality educational video programmes it has produced, all of which are available in DVD format. The 100+ titles cover most academic subject areas and contain valuable sequences in the form of animations and demonstrations. The DVDs are available to purchse from the university’s online store.

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British Universities Film & Video Council